


Family Meeting

by LikeMuh_Fashnik



Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Missing Scene, the main characters actually talk to each other about what they've been through
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:22:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeMuh_Fashnik/pseuds/LikeMuh_Fashnik
Summary: The remaining Crains have a long overdue talk at the hospital.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 81





	Family Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing and no one, please don't sue. This story is un-beta'd; I'm happy to hear constructive criticism so long as it's constructive.

Luke opened his eyes to see all of his remaining siblings crowded around his hospital room. Theo leaned against a wall holding a cup of coffee, Steven was folded into a cramped-looking hospital chair, and Shirley stood glaring at the monitors by his head as though she would personally yell them into submission if they got out of line. 

_Typical Shirley._

Theo was the first to notice he was waking up. She took a few steps forward which caught the attention of the other two. 

“Luke! You're awake!” Steven sat bolt upright in his chair. 

“I'll go get a nurse,” Shirley announced as she turned to the doorway. 

“Guys,” Luke rasped out from his position on the bed. Everyone turned back to him. “Thank you. For coming to get me. Just - thank you.” 

The others exchanged small smiles over his head. 

“Hey,” Steven began, “Everything's going to be OK. We'll talk later.” 

He patted Luke's knee. 

Luke gave a small nod and Shirley stepped out into the hallway. 

“Yeah,” Theo echoed cautiously, “Later.” 

*** *** *** *** *** 

“I would like to issue a blanket apology,” Steven began, later after nurses and doctors had been in and out of Luke's hospital room, conferring in whispers that his recovery was ‘basically a miracle’ and ‘he should be dead, why isn’t he dead?’ 

“I'm sorry I never believed that the house was haunted. Clearly, the house is very deeply haunted, and I must have been doing, like, Olympic-level mental gymnastics not to see it before now.” 

“Hold on a minute - are we really gonna - ” Shirley tried to cut in. 

“No,” said Theo. “We're not going back to pretending we didn't see what we saw.” 

“We were all there tonight,” added Luke. “We all saw Nell. Are you really going to pretend you didn't?” 

She took a deep breath, like she planned to keep on arguing, but then deflated and let it out. 

“No,” she said softly. 

“I know I was the worst offender as far as pretending everything was normal,” Steven resumed, “but not anymore.” 

“So, first, we're all in agreement that we what we saw was real, yes?” asked Theo. 

“Yes,” Luke chorused with his older siblings, then continued, “and our second point of order, we're keeping this to ourselves. No more ‘Crazy Crains’ or any of us getting carted off to the looney bin for talking about ghosts.” 

“Oh God, you're right. I shouldn't even tell Kevin - I mean, tell him anymore than the barest bones of where we all went tonight.” 

Shirley looked around to see each of her siblings nodding. 

“That goes for Leigh, too, Steven.” Theo added. 

“Believe me, I've got enough ground to make up with her even without all this. I won't say anything.” 

“So, what's next?” asked Luke. “And, also, where is Dad?” 

Steven flinched and his face shuttered closed. 

Shirley and Theo each privately noticed with surprise that, although they too hadn't seen Hugh Crain since leaving Hill House, they hadn't given his absence from the hospital much thought, even in the hours waiting for Luke to wake up. His absence from their lives had become the norm rather than the exception since their mother’s death, so that return to the default state had gone unnoticed. 

After a moment of shared looks between the youngest remaining siblings, Steven cleared his throat. 

“That was actually why I brought it up in the first place. I've got to tell you guys some stuff, and none of it's good.” 

“Oh I think that's pretty much par for the course at this point,” snarked Theo. 

Steven huffed an agreement. 

“To start with, I owe Luke a particular apology, for never believing him about Abigail. She wasn't an imaginary friend; she wasn't even a ghost back then. She was a real girl, and Luke, I'm sorry that I didn't believe you.” 

“I appreciate that, but what do you mean _was_?” 

“I'm getting to it. But before I do, just keep in mind,” he paused, unsure of what to say. This wasn't one of his books, where the goal was to build up the tension. He wanted the opposite here, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. _The only way out was through, _he thought.__

__“Just keep in mind, that it's already done, and the only thing left is to move forward, together.”_ _

__He held their rapt attention._ _

__“Dad made a deal with the house, or with Mom I guess. He stayed behind so it would let us leave.”_ _

__The others exploded at that._ _

__“What the hell does that mean?!” was Theo's question._ _

__“What the fuck – a deal?!” Shirley was sputtering with rage._ _

__“You have to get him out of there!” Luke half sat up in bed._ _

__“Guys, it's already too late!” Steven’s voice carried over the others, who all quieted down in their shock and anger._ _

__“The last time you saw him, taking Luke down the stairs, he was already dead,” he continued in a much softer voice._ _

__Shirley put a hand to her mouth, likely holding back a yell that would bring the nurses running. Theo sank down into the unoccupied chair, and Luke put his head in his hands._ _

__“How?” Theo asked in a low voice._ _

__“While we were all in there, trapped, talking to Nell, he took a bunch of pills, agreed to stay there forever if the house let us leave. I saw him lying at the top of the spiral stairs as we were all running for the cars.”_ _

__“That was why the two of you stayed behind,” Shirley pointed out, just now putting together how strange that was._ _

__“After that, I guess, his ghost ... showed me, somehow, what he saw our last night at the house.”_ _

__“Showed you?” Luke asked._ _

__“I can’t really explain it,” Steven shrugged. “It was almost like it was happening right in front of me, like I could reach out and touch the version of Dad from that night, but at the same time, he was standing right beside me as he looks today.” He paused. “Looked.”_ _

__“But what did it show you?” asked Shirley._ _

__“And what does Abigail have to do with any of it?” continued Theo._ _

__“This next part – Mom doesn't look good. And once I tell you, it kind of changes everything. Or nothing, I don't know. But my problem before was not knowing anything. Maybe if it's all out in the open, we'll all be better off.”_ _

__"Mom killed the Dudley's daughter, Abigail, and she tried to kill Luke and Nell. Dad got there in time to save you guys, but it was too late for Abigail. He got all of us to the car, and when he came back for mom, it was already too late.”_ _

__“Steven what the hell are you talking about?” Shirley's voice was flat and empty._ _

__“It was the house. The house got to her. It got her all twisted up. I don't know how, but it must have gotten her to do it, and then it got her to throw herself off the stairs because she saw us being taken away from her.”_ _

__“That must have been what I saw,” whispered Theo. She continued in a louder voice, “When Dad told me to get Luke and Nell to the car, he grabbed my arm, and I saw a flash of him shoving mom into a wall. That must have been it, when he stopped her from hurting you.”_ _

__“The rat poison,” said Shirley. “I was thinking just now, about why Mom would start with Abigail, who she didn't even know. But it was the rat poison I saw downstairs. I told Dad about it; that's when he knew something was wrong and told me to get to the car.”_ _

__“It was real,” Luke began. “The tea party in the Red Room. When I told people after, everyone said it wasn’t real, so much I started to doubt it too. But that was it. The house got her to try to poison all of us, and Abigail just took her drink first.” He looked into the middle distance, remembering his childhood friend fully for the first time, with grief and horror written on his face._ _

__“That was why Dad never sold the house,” Steven continued his retelling. “They covered up their daughter’s death so they could keep visiting her ghost, and we’d never need to know what Mom had done. He wanted to protect her memory.”_ _

__He looked down at his shoes for a moment._ _

__“I know Dad worked hard to keep our memory of her intact, but I don’t think this should change it. I remember, that night, Nell said it herself – that wasn’t Mom. It was the house, the ghosts, driving her to it. And now that it’s all out, the secrets can’t dig into us either. That happened last time. It was like all of us were on our own little island, divide and conquer. After Nell, and now Dad, I don’t want to be that way anymore.”_ _

__“So, what now?” Luke asked after a moment to dry his eyes. “What do we do?”_ _

__“No one ever goes back to the house,” Shirley declared._ _

__“Agreed,” said Theo. “But we still own it.”_ _

__“And the Dudley’s still visit. But none of us go there. Ever.” Steven saw each of his siblings nod._ _

“So we keep it in the family,” Luke concluded. “And in like 20 years, we send some demolition guys _during the day_ to raze the place to the ground. I tried to torch the place, but I guess the night is its time to shine.”

__“I don't know if it'll work, but I'd be glad to try,” agreed Steven._ _

__“And then when my kids inherit the property in a generation? I'd have to tell them eventually, and who knows if they'll believe me,” Shirley finished with a sigh._ _

__“And we don't want your grandkids to say ‘screw it, it's just an old story’ and decide to live there,” Theo joked._ _

__“We’ll have to convince them,” said Luke, “make them believe us.”_ _

__"And we'll have to hope that with no one new to feed on, it'll starve,” finished Steven._ _

__“So that's the plan, we wait, we blow up a house, and we hope that it starves,” Theo said incredulously. “It sounds insane, but it's all we've got.”_ _

__“That, and sticking together.” Stephen gave Shirley an apologetic look. She gave a small nod, before Luke cut in._ _

__“Oh god, Steven, that was terrible.” He gave a short laugh, and Theo joined in._ _

__“It might be a little cheesy,” Shirley cut in after her own brief chuckle, “but it's true. We stick together so things can't tear us apart and will be OK.”_ _

__“Yeah,” Steven agreed, “I really think we will.”_ _


End file.
